Lawmakers join mourning over Cory's death

The House of Representatives has joined the nation in mourning the death of the eleventh president of the Philippines who succumbed to colon cancer early Saturday. Speaker Prospero Nograles described Mrs. Aquino as a "God-fearing leader, a loving mother, and a simply and ordinary wife who did the extraordinary for others." He said the former president's "honesty and humility gave hope and life, and inspired the Filipino to fight and win back freedom and democracy – a legacy that will forever be engraved in the hearts of a grateful people." House deputy minority leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, who headed the National Democratic Front peace panel in its 1986 peace talks with the Aquino administration, condoled with the family of the former president. "We are very saddened by her passing at this critical point of our nation's history. We share her family's deep sense of loss but also relief in that she has been freed from the pains and burdens in the last moments of her life," Ocampo said in a text message. Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III and Muntinlupa City Rep. Rozzano Rufino Biazon, both members of the Liberal Party — whose members included Mrs. Aquino's husband, the late senator and martyr Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. — recounted how they knew Mrs. Aquino back when they were teenagers. "I was emotional when I heard the news. The Aquinos and the Tañadas have known each other for more than 50 years," said Tañada, grandson of the late former Sen. Lorenzo Tañada, who was known as the grand old man of the opposition against strongman Ferdinand Marcos. Tañada said he personally met Mrs. Aquino in August 1983, during Ninoy's wake. Ninoy was gunned down at the Manila International Airport (now Ninoy Aquino International Airport) when he returned to the country from exile in the US. "I was one of the young students who helped prepare for Ninoy's homecoming and was at the airport when he was assassinated. I was in Times Street when she and the family arrived from Boston," Tañada said. Biazon, son of Senator Rodolfo Biazon who was a key military commander during Mrs. Aquino’s presidency, said the democracy icon would continue to inspire Filipinos. "I consider it a great privilege to have had the chance to know her personally from the time that I was a teenager when my father defended her administration during the coups to recent years that I serve the country as a member of Congress," Biazon said in a text message. "The passing of former president Cory Aquino is a national loss. But her life was a national gift," he added. Mrs. Aquino, who was diagnosed with colon cancer in March 2008, succumbed to cardiorespiratory arrest at 3:18 a.m. Saturday at the Makati Medical Center, where she had been confined since June 23. She was 76. She rose to power in 1986 through the People Power Revolution that led to the ouster of Marcos. - GMANews.TV